


A Piece for Onesself

by justanotherStonyfan



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-06-05 00:34:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15158540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justanotherStonyfan/pseuds/justanotherStonyfan
Summary: Expectation versus reality.Happy 100th Birthday MCU Steve!





	A Piece for Onesself

People have been asking for months. He's kept it as much to himself as he can, doesn't bring it up in interviews, changes all the social media information he keeps so that nobody is notified, but it's the joke of the century – or perhaps the joke of two. 

Red, white and blue, liberty and justice for all, home of the brave, land of the free, born on the fourth of July. 

He is, today, one hundred years old. He's also in his early thirties but the media have been rolling banners out since May, because of course they have. It was Bucky's last year, and Steve's opinion remains that Bucky's is more important. But Bucky has never been dressed up like a flag and paraded around the US, has never donned the stars and stripes and punched Hitler in comic books, has never, ever, been seen as the mainstay and soulmate of the guy America would rather see running around. 

James Buchanan Barnes turned a hundred with a couple of mentions on the news and a slightly newer section in the Smithsonian. 

In the morning, Steve Rogers keeps to a set routine. He wakes, conducts his ablutions and goes running. He usually takes one of few routes that are familiar to him, and has of late been favoring the fifteen-mile circuit that includes Central Park. He completes his run with a bottle of water from a local café, and recycles the bottle in their recycle trash can. He then jogs back to Avengers tower. 

This morning, though the paparazzi were waiting at both tower entrances, with some bookies even taking bets on which he would use, and which route he would follow, he did not emerge for his usual morning run. 

After his run, Steve Rogers day will vary. As an on-duty Avenger, he is expected to remain within a reasonable distance from the tower, keeping his messaging systems online, his communication links open. As an off-duty Avenger, he takes in local art galleries, eats at local restaurants, sits and sketches in the park. 

Today, the Nation is aware, thanks to some clever working-out by one of many gossip rags, that Steve Rogers is not on duty. 

Neither, it turns out, is he at the farmer's market, deli, coffee house or gallery he enjoys most. 

The people of Manhattan are rarely fazed by anything. Nobody looks twice at celebrities in a city full of them. But the city is bedecked in patriotic colors, posters and billboards up to tell the city what it already knows – this Fourth of July is the Centenary of the Leader of the Avengers. He is booked to attend the opening of a new building for New York's elected officials and people line the streets with their phones and cameras ready. Today, he will match the decorations. 

And so it is with great regret that he must send Thor, son of Odin, due to an unavoidable scheduling conflict, and would like to express how truly disappointed he is to be unable to attend. 

In the afternoon, he is scheduled to record an interview live in Times Square. The weather holds and the people are smiling – one or two have brought banners to wave. The video message he sends in lieu of an appearance depicts a man who can't attend, but whose sadness at this fact is matched only by the humbleness of speaking to such a wonderful and forgiving interviewer and audience.

In the evening, there's a gala that will lead into the big fireworks display. To start with, there is a car that's been hired to bring him to the event and drive him to the red carpet, where the photographers will clamor for his attention. He does not arrive by car, and those few photographers granted entry to the gala are on high alert – he ought really to be down from his floor at any moment. It's impossible to see, through the throng of people, whether the man of the hour has yet arrived.

Steve Rogers, National Icon, Beacon of Hope, Paragon of Virtue, is expected to turn a hundred on a stage, in full uniform, in front of hundreds of cameras in the middle of crowded Manhattan. They want him to cut ribbons and press buttons and launch fireworks. 

He's expected to. 

He will not. 

Tony Stark will graciously step in at the last moment, in a tux, which he'll step out of an Iron Man suit wearing. By his side, the well-known and widely-loved Colonel James Rhodes - War Machine, Iron Patriot – will stand, to provide respectability and legitimacy to the heartfelt apology Tony Stark will issue – Steve Rogers, who so dearly wished to attend the Fourth of July celebrations, has been urgently called away on a Black Ops mission that cannot be postponed. It may not even make the news but, rest assured, even on his birthday, the First Avenger is keeping These United States safe.

 

Two days ago, in the back of a small catering truck with no windows, Steve sat with Bucky as they left the tower. At the company of origin, they got out of the truck and took a prearranged car to Steve's as-yet unknown abode in a small borough of New York. 

Yesterday, Sam and Natasha arrived.

Today, they sit in Steve's fully-equipped basement, with electricity and amenities, as much take-out as they can eat and plenty of different things to drink. Steve has a collection of DVDs and a Netflix account, but neither have yet been used. Instead, Sam is a little tipsy and Natasha is pretending not to be. Bucky is curled up against Steve's side and they each drink a beer they won't feel, and it doesn't matter. 

This is a room built to keep the world out, an open-plan subterranean living space without windows or back doors. The television is off, phones are on silent, the landline unplugged. In the morning, providing no disasters occur, a message will be sent to him through the Avengers emergency contact system - _Mission Accomplished._

Until then, Steve doesn't know what time it is – doesn't particularly care, either. They've been talking for hours, eating when they're hungry, drinking when they're thirsty. They've played cards, they've reminisced, they've eaten a simple cake that Bucky made and Steve has received one gift from each of them; two books and a set of beautiful pencils. 

No interviews, no news, no televised celebrations, or photographers or cookouts or fireworks. 

It is, without question, the best birthday Steve can remember.


End file.
